Lucía was 15 when a stranger raped her as she walked home from school. The rape resulted in a pregnancy and in June 2015 Lucia gave birth alone in the bathroom of her home, where the baby died. She was convicted of homicide and sentenced to five years…

Norma* (*indicates a pseudonym) was 12 when her father began raping her. She became pregnant shortly thereafter. Though abortion is legal in Ecuador when a woman or girl’s life or health is in danger, no one told her this. She gave birth despite…

The extremely high rate of family violence in Papua New Guinea (PNG) needs to be addressed, said a long list of countries during PNG’s United Nations Periodic Review, a process in which countries’ human rights records are scrutinized by their peers at the…

The rapid spread of the Zika virus has raised concern among public health officials across the Americas. The World Health Organization warned Sunday that the virus is likely to spread further across the region. At first glance,…

“I went to the police 17 times. I went every week for the last month. They said this is a domestic problem," Jenella (not her real name) told me. "They just told my husband not to do it again." Jenella's story is all too common in Papua New…

Ruth, 29, shows me a fresh wound, slowly healing, on the top of her head, while she stays at a safe house in Port Moresby. “About 6.30am. I was getting ready for work. We had an argument ... My husband threw a rock. My head was broken. No one helped,” she…

When Ecuador’s National Assembly begins debating a draft criminal code reform today, Ecuadoran women will notice a regressive change to the draft debated last year — the law does not eliminate the prohibition of abortion in cases of rape. Human Rights…

Papua New Guinea has made the international news again with a horrific story to reinforce stereotypes about the country: sorcery, sex, and fire. On January 6, a group of men reportedly stripped a woman naked, bound her hands and feet, stuffed a cloth in…